Bisons stay alive with 3OT win

WINNIPEG - The Manitoba Bisons and Trinity Western Spartans needed extra minutes to decide a winner, going to 3OT in an absolute classic at Wayne Fleming Arena on Saturday night. Senior Camille Enns scored the game winner on a slap shot at 4:12 of the sixth period.

Kate Fawcett stopped 71 shots in the loss, a Canada West record.

“I just wanted to get the puck on net. I shot it as humanly hard as I possibly could. I’m shaking still from just the nerves and everything, just the adrenaline. I wanted to finish it for my teammates,” said overtime hero Enns on what she was trying to do when the puck slid to her stick in triple overtime.

“I don’t think I’ve ever jumped higher.”

Defence and goaltending were the name of the game in the first period.

Trinity Western started the period with an early flurry of chances forcing the Bisons onto the back foot. This culminated at 19:35 with Jordyn Matthews all alone in the crease with the puck on her stick forcing Emily Shippam to make an early sliding save.

The Herd recovered well and largely held Trinity Western in their own end but struggled to break through the Spartans defence.

At 7:48 the Bisons came close to opening the scoring on a deflected point shot from Camryn Gillis off the blade of Kylie Lesuk that grazed the left skate blade of Spartans goalie Kate Fawcett.

Fawcett, who entered game two after a 36 save performance in game one, gave the offence little to work with as did her Bisons counterpart Emily Shippam. The Bisons controlled the first period well and outshot the Spartans 20-7.

The Bisons had an excellent opportunity at 2:40 when Dana Goertzen’s pass found the stick of Aimee Patrick alone behind the Trinity Western defenders. Patrick came in with speed and a hard shot but couldn’t solve Fawcett.

The second period offered more of the same, yet new wrinkles were added in the form of powerplays for either side. Trinity Western failed to convert on two powerplay chances given and the Bisons had an abbreviated powerplay but failed to convert on it themselves.

The goaltenders became a larger focus in the second period when both sides showed fatigue.

Trinity Western got their first solid scoring chance of the period thanks to a Kyra Mcdonald two-on-one shot but Shippam handled it with the blocker.

Fawcett made numerous cross crease saves off Ali Staples on her blocker side and Norah Collins on her glove side.

The Bisons peppered Fawcett with 13 shots in the second but could not find the back of the net. Whether it was a rebound chance at 3:39 by Collins or a net drive shot in the slot by Kelsey Huibers, Fawcett stood tall.

Shippam herself saved five shots in the second to remain perfect.

“My teammates will laugh at me, but I do the play-by-play in my head when they’re in the o-zone. I like to talk the game through in my head so by the time they get down here I’m already in the play,” said Shippam on how she stays focused between long stretches of offensive zone time.

The Herd would continue to pressure Trinity Western into the third period.

A costly delay of game penalty at 9:52 by Jace Scott would give the Bisons a much needed powerplay. On their 42^nd shot of the game, a net drive Collins would be saved by Fawcett but the rebound by Ashley Keller would find twine over the shoulder of the sprawling netminder to open the scoring.

The Bisons would only register one more shot in the period however and at 3:15 the Spartans broke even. A Kelsey Ledoux point shot deflected off the stick of Kara Yackel and hugged the inside of the post to tie the game for Trinity Western.

“I believe it’s the culture and the character.. We have a lot of it in our dressing room and even though we know we didn’t play our best game, and Manitoba came with everything on the line tonight and gave us their best we challenged [our team] in intermission and they take over that dressing room. We knew they were coming out with everything they had, and they found a way to get that goal,” Trinity Western head coach Peter Hay said.

The teams struggled to break through each side’s sturdy defence afterward and overtime was needed. The shot count was 10-8 for the Bisons in the third period.

The first ten-minute overtime nearly ended ten seconds in. An unassuming shot from the top of the circle found its way through Fawcett, who had to reach back and stop the puck with her stick blade from the grasp of Goertzen.

The rest of the overtime favoured the Bisons, but a goal was nowhere in sight. Ashley Keller at 1:26 remaining came close to beating Fawcett on the Herd’s 52^nd shot only to be denied by the Spartan goaltender.

The overtime period was feisty but both teams remained disciplined in the face of certain doom. The Herd outshot Trinity Western 11-3 in the first overtime but no results came.

The 20-minute second overtime would feature compelling drama. Chances by Kara Yackel and Sophia Anderson would be handled by Shippam as her save total rose to 32. Fawcett would continue her lights out performance as her save total climbed to a league record of 68.

“Kate Fawcett has been a key goalie for us, and she’s been a big piece of our success and honestly we know what kind of goalie we got, and she definitely performed at her best,” said Hay.

Despite a Bisons powerplay, nothing would be solved, and the teams would approach triple overtime.

“Do it for each other, a lot of us are graduating we have six people graduating and everyone was screaming, the energy was so high there was no need to be motivated,” said Enns on the energy throughout the room in between overtimes.

The third overtime rolled on and the Bisons would be rewarded for their hard work.

“I don’t think I could be prouder of the consistency and their effort. It was two teams that didn’t want to give an inch tonight and we dominated that game so many times,” said Zacharias on the effort of the Bisons throughout the game.

At 15:48, Enns teed up a shot from the top of the circle that just had enough on it to push beyond the left pad of Fawcett for the game winner. The crowd roared and an exhausted Herd squad mobbed Enns and winning goaltender Shippam as they celebrated tying the series.

The final shot count was 73-33 for the Manitoba Bisons.

The Bisons play the Spartans in a winner take all game tomorrow at 5 pm.